The amendment of the Recycling and Waste Management Act of 1996 shifted the responsibility for waste management to private industry. Based on the principle of producer responsibility set in the Packaging Ordinance, the aim was to ease the financial situation of the local authorities which were facing a waste management catastrophe at the end of the eighties.

The partial privatisation of the disposal duty does not, however, mean that the local councils no longer have any role to play in terms of waste management. On the contrary: Duales System Deutschland GmbH is firmly committed to close cooperation both in the packaging sector and in the disposal of used electrical and electronic equipment under the German ElektroG. While there, under the Packaging Ordinance, newly created disposal systems have always been required to be “coordinated with existing collection and recycling systems of the public-sector waste management institutions (…)”, the legislature has here per se entrusted the local councils with collecting used electrical and electronic equipment.

Furthermore, many local authorities have joined DSD GmbH directly as waste management and system partners. For instance, the A.R.T. sorting plant in Trier, one of the most modern plants for the dry-mechanical sorting of lightweight packaging, is operated by the local authority.

Further enhancements in cost-efficiency and promotion of recycling as a contribution towards sustainable development in Germany can be achieved only in conjunction with the local councils.
The goal of this cooperation is to work with the municipal and private operators in order to find regionally sound technical solutions. Duales System Deutschland GmbH supplies the corresponding know-how and the necessary technologies.
In this way, DSD GmbH makes an important contribution towards maintaining and supporting the versatile waste management sector with its numerous medium-sized firms and municipal suppliers.